Touring Nashville

We'd picked up some tourist brochures from the concierge last night and decided we wanted to go shopping at Opry Mills, which involved a shuttle bus, and do a trolley tour, and see an Elvis Presley show.

It was kind of late by the time we got up and dressed. We went out for breakfast, but there weren't many places open. We found the place where we buy tickets for the trolley tour, and decided to get the 3 in 1 ticket which includes a walking tour and a ticket to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Then we dashed down the street to Mike's Coffee Bar to pick up coffee/tea and bagel/muffin for breakfast, and back to catch the 10 am trolley tour. It was interesting and entertaining: a great way to start, as we found out about lots of places that it would be good to go back and see in more detail later. There's a replica of the Parthenon in the park, and we went down Music Row where there are lots of recording studios and music publishing houses.

When we got back we did the walking tour, from 11 am to 12:30 am. That took us into the Ryman Auditorium, where they were having rehearsals for the ASCAP awards; and into a record store where a late night radio show was recorded with live musicians after they finished performing at the Ryman; and through the Orchid Room which has a "Hall of Fame" with pictures and signatures of famous (and not so famous) musicians. Our guide, Marianne, told us lots of interesting stories about the history.

We had lunch at the arcade and then bought more groceries at Dollar General Store and walked back to the hotel. We kept running into other CKC people, and other Sweet Adelines.

We missed the shuttle bus to Opry Mills so we shared a taxi with Leanne and Gigi. It cost $25 one way, and we shared the cost between us so it wasn't too bad - only 15 minutes. Opry Mills is a big shopping mall. It has lots of shoe shops and dress shops. I bought a few things at the Old Navy Store that were on the clearance racks, and Sue bought a second suitcase. There's a wonderful cafe called the Rainforest Cafe which has aquaria, trees, vines, and wildlife like a jungle. Occasionally the lights dim and flash and there's a sound of thunder. They have a hippo rising from mist outside the door. We saw Karen and Di and Vicki Sutton and some others queued up to record two songs for a CD, but decided not to stay and watch as we were running out of time.

We caught a taxi back, changed quickly, and dashed down to the Sports Grill for a sandwich before the bus picked us up for the Elvis Presley show. As it turned out the bus was later than we had expected. Our driver Larry gave us some more background about Nashville as we went by other hotels to pick up guests. The biggest industry is health (lots of hospitals). Entertainment was about number 5.

The Elvis Tribute was performed by John Beardsley, with a band and two girl singers. He's been doing it for 10 years. The auditorium was pretty full. It was two hours non-stop, with about 30 Elvis songs. He has done a lot of research to make the performance authentic - costumes, instruments, sound and even the type of microphone. He had amazing energy all the way through: an example to us when singing in the chorus!

We were sitting in the front row, centre. When he asked for a hanky to mop his brow, Lorraine stripped off and offered her jacket: very sexy! There was also a group of Future Famers of America who got very involved and whistled and cheered - especially the girls.

We caught the bus home to the hotel, and dropped into the Sports Grill for a cocktail and a beer. I left Sue to it and came back to blog.

And so to bed. A big day tomorrow, with rehearsals most of the day and Harmony Classic in the evening.